NEW YORK — I ran into Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff over the summer when we were both standing in line for perogies at Folklorama.

We exchanged pleasantries and chit-chatted about things other than hockey.

I asked him if he had any chance at all to take some down time, perhaps get out to the lake and relax.

“Nah, not really,” he said.

I, of course, knew what that meant.

If you think it was a summer of turmoil, hand wringing and general concern over the state of the Jets for the city’s fan base, just imagine what it was like for Cheveldayoff.

But, in the end, save for a late curveball thrown by defencman Dustin Byfuglien, it all turned out as well as could be expected.

The Jets couldn’t afford to keep Jacob Trouba — who didn’t want to sign here long term anyway — because of salary cap constrictions, so they traded him to the New York Rangers in June, getting defenceman Neal Pionk and a draft pick that turned into promising young blue-liner Ville Heinola.

They couldn’t keep Tyler Myers or Ben Chiarot or Brandon Tanev either and had to wave goodbye as all three departed through free agency.

They had to go to war with one of their own players — veteran centre Andrew Copp — through the NHL’s cold and harsh arbitration process.

And, of course, they had to work to re-sign 30-goal scoring restricted free agents Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine, a process that took right up to the final days of training camp.

No doubt all of that would not only prevent a general manager from taking a true vacation, but it would also probably lead to a few sleepless nights as well.

But this week, with all that said and done, the Jets will take the ice for their season opener with a lineup that isn’t quite as decimated as it once looked to be.

Yes, the defence is a huge question mark and potentially an even bigger problem.

Four of last year’s top-6 blue-liners won’t in the lineup when the Jets visit the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

The entire right side of Byfuglien, Trouba and Myers — once thought to be one of the strongest in the league — is either gone or reportedly contemplating retirement.

But the Jets still have their core of veteran forwards, a former Vezina candidate in Connor Hellebuyck in goal — he needs a bounce-back season — and the same coaching staff that helped them get to the Western Conference final in 2018.

Those coaches might just be the ones who can make Cheveldayoff’s off-season seem a little better.

Now’s the time when Paul Maurice and his staff will take the head-man pass from Cheveldayoff and earn their money trying to figure out a way to maintain contender status, despite some significant challenges.

Maurice spent training camp preaching team defence and if he can get his troops to execute they should have a fighting chance.

If that’s too tall an order, with a handful of forwards who have not yet proven to be defensively reliable, this fight to stay relevant in the always tough Central Division will be difficult to win. The Jets will be able to outscore their problems on some nights, but that seems like a risky long-range strategy.

Maurice had his work cut out for him this season no matter what.

Even if the Jets had all their players returning, he would have been expected to produce something better than a first-round playoff exit or face questions about his suitability for the job.

Now he’s got to do it with fewer horses and with a group that seemed burned out last year after a strong playoff run the year before.

As much as the Jets as an organization like the man, regression is not acceptable to the people who fork out big money for tickets.

Maybe the players will be recharged and refreshed. Maybe captain Blake Wheeler will enjoy it more and everyone around the team will start to have fun again.

It would not be a stretch to suggest last season was not very enjoyable for the players. From Wheeler’s own comments, you can tell there were communication problems between the leadership group and the younger players.

Laine sure didn’t seem to be enjoying himself, while falling from 44 to 30 goals, 18 of which were scored in November.

It doesn’t seem like Byfuglien was all that thrilled either, given that he sat out training camp while trying to decide if he even wants to go through all this again.

Maurice and his staff need to try to make that better, bring some of the joy back to the game, get the players as fired up as they were in that splendid spring of 2018.

Hellebuyck can help Maurice out by having a great season — you know what they say about coaches only being as good as their starting goalie — and defencemen like Pionk, Poolman, Sami Niku, Nathan Beaulieu, Kulikov and, dare we say, Heinola — can punch above their weight class.

If those things happen, the Jets can get back to the playoffs and, as the St. Louis Blues showed last year, anything can happen from there.

They’re likely going to be a bubble team at best — dreams of first place flew away with the free agents — but there’s no reason to believe playoffs are not possible.

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